When Sylvia was done, she was exhausted. The adrenaline rush from that morning, as well all the work she'd done, had worn her out. It was time to rest.
She positioned herself under a tree opposite the pile, so that she could keep an eye on it. Using her backpack as a pillow, she got comfortable and soon drifted off to sleep.
She'd lucked out considerably. Her pack contained a full bottle of water, a meat sandwich wrapped in plastic, several small packets of dried fruit (of which she'd already eaten some), a coil of wire and, to her utmost delight, a box of matches.
They would make things much easier for her.
But it was still ironic, considering that all that work she'd done in training was all for naught. Still though, it was fun. She was glad she had the opportunity to learn properly.
Sleep came fairly easily, though she did wake up twice in the dead of night, thinking she'd heard something. When she looked around, she couldn't see anyone. Assuming it was an animal, she lay back down and went to sleep again.
When morning arrived, Sylvia practically jumped up, grabbed her backpack and, with one last backward glance at her pile, left to find another spot. She walked in a straight line for half an hour, stopping to mark a tree every so often by using a rock to scrape away at the bark in a shape that no one but her could identify.
After a while, she stopped by the bank of a crystal-clear river. She sat down, drank some water and ate some more dried fruit and half her sandwich, humming to herself all the while. Once she was finished, she gathered up armfuls of leaves and twigs and stacked them up against another tree.
This task, much like it had yesterday, took several hours. The Capitol audience was a little curious as to how things would turn out, but at the same time it was so monotonous that they instead tuned in to other tributes doing more interesting activities.
Like, for example, Lord and Gaius stalking Cable.
The Career pack had split up into groups, each group heading in another direction. The rest of them were goodness knows where. Lord and Gaius were itching with excitement over getting another kill. They couldn't wait to gloat about their fun to the others later on.
But it was not meant to be. What Cable lacked in raw strength and weapons experience, he made up for in speed and stealth. Though he was on the verge of tears over the thought of a horrible death, he still managed to keep a clear enough head to stay focused on evading the Careers.
And before long, his trail went cold, and Lord and Gaius had no choice but to give up.
Cable may have avoided one threat, but he inadvertently wandered straight into the path of another. He emerged from behind a tree and almost ran smack into Sylvia. Sylvia dropped the bundle of twigs she was holding in surprise.
For a few moments there was silence as the two of them stared wide-eyed at each other.
The silence was broken by Cable screaming in terror and running back the way he came.
Sylvia stared after him for a moment, then shrugged and resumed her work.